A group fighting to stop the development of a major silver mine near Lue in NSW’s central west have had a court win, after the Land and Environment Court revoked the mine’s development consent.
Silver Mines Limited was granted approval for the mine, which sits on the largest known undeveloped silver deposit in Australia in April 2023.
Local action group Bingman Landcare has been fighting the development, claiming that the mine could cause a “potential environmental and health disaster” in the popular food-tourism and farming region.
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Bowdens Silver Mine was set for construction near the village of Lue, about 30 kilometres from Mudgee.
It had planned to extract more than 30 million tonnes of lead, silver and zinc over 23 years.
Residents in the area have claimed the impacts of silver and lead in the air and surrounding groundwater could be disastrous for the local area.
A panel of judges in the NSW Land and Environment Court today found that a previous court appeal in March 2024 had not sufficiently considered the environmental impacts of the mine’s 13-kilometre power transmission line.
“It is inconceivable that the construction and operation of a 13-kilometre power transmission line would not have some environmental impact, or some social or economic impact in the locality of the line (whether positive or negative),” Supreme Court Justice Richard White said.
“The cumulative effect of such impact with the impact of the development of the mine itself should be determined,” he said.
The court therefore declared that the Independent Planning Commission’s development consent for the Silver Project is “void and of no effect”.
They ordered all work that relied on the development consent to be stopped.
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Silver Mines Limited was ordered to pay the legal costs for Bingman Landcare, the community group based in Lue.
“We were successful in the court of appeal,” Bingman Landcare said in a statement.
“We’re obviously pleased with the decision and are working through the judgment now to understand it fully.”
“Talk about David and Goliath”, Mudgee Region Action Group member Mick Boller told 9News.com.au after the judgment was handed down.
Silver Mines Limited paused trading on the ASX earlier today pending the court’s decision.
Silver Mines Limited has been contacted for comment
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